Reflection

            Throughout this course, my opinion has changed on how students learn.  With all of the learning theories, instructional strategies, and technology tools at my disposal, various theories can be instituted to meet the needs of my students.  By implementing different combinations, each lesson can be learner centered.

            I feel that students learn in different combinations.  Taking different factors into account like multiple intelligences and language disabilities, a teacher must differentiate the lesson in order to deliver effective instruction.  I believe that learning should be put the learner as the focus whenever possible.  Given my classroom setting in the computer lab, certain projects really lend themselves to cooperative learning groups.  By making an effort to provide the students with the opportunity to “work in cooperative groups, they make sense of, or construct meaning for, new knowledge by interacting with others” (Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000).  Other theories also apply in my room.  For example, by constructing a product, whether it is a spreadsheet, slideshow, Voice Thread, or paragraph, the ownership is on the student. 

            Some changes that I have already made in my instructional goals are using more of the new technologies available.  For instance, the concept mapping tools and Voice Thread have already been used to display and organize information so that students can better understand a concept.  As part of my long term goals I envision my students being able to participate in a wiki collaboration with our New York City campus due to open in two years.  With the anticipated success of that project, hopefully administration will allow the students to participate with other schools over long distances to strengthen their collaboration skills.  In addition I would also like to see the students Skype with the other campus in order to do a school wide project that helps to build wells in South Sudan.  This is all due to the fact that “now students can collaborate through the web and other students in their school, subject experts, and multi-user game players…they can even collaborate across the globe” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007, p. 144).

            To conclude, I do not feel that there is one single theory, strategy and technology tools for an entire classroom of children.  It is important to prepare the students for a “fast paced, virtual work place that they will inherit, today’s students need to be able to learn and produce work cooperatively” (Pitler, et al., 2007, p. 138).  It is not only more interesting but also more research driven to incorporate certain strategies at certain times in order to deliver effective instruction. 

Resources:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., & Stanne, M.B. (2000).  Cooperative learning methods: A meta-analysis. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.  Retrieved May 4, 2006, from http://www.co-operation.org/pages/cl-methods.html

Connectivism and Social Learning Theory

            Everything in learning has a connection.  Whether a skill is built upon or connected to other skills at the same time, it is the “intersection of prior knowledge, experience, perception, reality, comprehension, and flexibility that learning occurs” (Orey, 2007, p. 1). 

            The cooperative learning theory is a “methodology that employs a variety of learning activities to improve students understanding of a subject by using a structured approach which involves a series of steps, requiring students to create, analyze, and apply concepts” (Kagan, 1999). 

            Due to the fact that cooperative learning has similar characteristics to Vygotsky, Piaget, and Kohlberg’s theories building on prior knowledge and real life experiences can help students make the necessary connections thus storing information in their long term memory.  By “combining teamwork and individual accountability, students’ work toward acquiring both knowledge and social skills” (Orey, 2007, p. 3). 

            By using cooperative learning in a classroom it can create an “atmosphere of achievement” (Panitz, 1996), where students can get a “deeper understanding of the material and more potential to retain the material” (Orey, 2007, p. 3).  After all, the whole point of any instruction is for the students to remember the information and if the process of learning was enjoyable they are more likely to remember it.

          For this weeks application, we were asked to create a voice thread.  The link to my voice thread is https://voicethread.com/share/3479471/

Resources:

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Kagan, S. Educational Leadership (Jan. 1990).  Retrieved September 2, 2003, from: http://home.capecod.net/~panitz/tedasrticles/coopdeinition.htm

Panitz, T. (1996).  A definition of collaborative vs. cooperative learning.  Retrieved June 28, 2012, from:  http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/collaborative-learning/panitz-paper.cfm